y put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪ hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following breaking new. the national hurricane center issuing the latest update moments ago. hurricane sandy getting stronger and now bearing down on the entire eastern seaboard. it's expected to collide not only with two other storms but also as you well know with the presidential election in its last full week of campaigning to go. these are some pictures we recently got in of the worst damage so far from delaware to north carolina, new york, and

new jersey. the president left the campaign trail today and returned to washington canceling campaign stops in florida and ohio and a rally planned for tomorrow in wisconsin. a little more than an hour ago, the president spoke at the white house briefing room on preps in place to help the nearly 50 million people who could be affected by this natural disaster. the president did answer one question about the storm's impact on the race. >> i'm worried about the impact on families and i'm worried about the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation. the election will take care of itself next week. >> as for governor romney, around noon eastern time today, the romney campaign announced it is canceled all planned events tomorrow in wisconsin and florida out of what it calls, quote, sensitivity for the millions of americans in the storm's path. the governor did campaign in ohio this morning and will hold

a rally in iowa later today. >> we have faced these kind of challenges before, and as we have, it's interesting to see how americans come together. this looks like another time when we need to come together, all across the country, even here in ohio and make sure that we give of our support to the people who need it. >> an emergency declarations have been signed in eight states along the east coast. new york city meantime now bracing for the worst of the storm. nbc meteorologist bill karins is tracking it all for us. he joins me live from lower manhattan. bill, right now two major tunnels close later today. the holland tunnel that connects new york and new jersey, mandatory evacuations in order for lower manhattan people outside of the new york area. that is where the world trade center is located, wall street not far behind and the conditions are picking up by the minute it seems there. >> reporter: yeah, without a doubt. this storm is going historic. to this point we haven't even gone through the historic part

of it. this morning's high tide cycle was what you expect in a typical hurricane in this area of the country. as we go throughout this afternoon and this evening when the winds really start cranking up, that's the one portion of the historic portion of the storm when the largest power outages is anticipated in total volume, in the millions that this country has ever seen. then it will all peak with a creshendo tonight at the high tide. further south on the jersey shore between 7:00 and 8:00. it will have the highest storm surge. it's because of the full moon and we're watching the wave action on top of that. it will make it a historical storm surge damage. they're initially saying as much as 11 feet above tide level. here where i stand right now, just to give you a vantage point of it, this is low tide. this is as low as this water will be the next 12 hours. this is already bouncing up and coming over the walkway as some

of the waves are crashing. this is the hudson river flowing into new york harbor. across the way is lady liberty. this is where it's flooded where i stand six hours from now. at 8:30 this water level should be somewhere as high as this railing, maybe a little above it. all of the water will flow in here. it's very flat. there's not a lot of elevation change in lower manhattan. above this it will head towards the road, the battery out there just inland. the subways have been barricaded with sandbags in lower manhattan. they're fearful the subways will get flooded. they will drain and clear out. it's saltwater and will damage the tracks. it's an electrical system underneath there. that's huge multi-million dollar repairs. i'm fearful of all our friends on the jersey shore. it looks like this storm is your storm for the history books. your high tide cycle tonight. we saw how bad the morning one

was. atlantic city had water three to four blocks inland. the pier was blowing down the street inland. if anyone can get out, get out now because your time is running out. >> to your point about getting out now, the same kind of warning being given for rhode island, bill, as the governor there is telling people to get out while they can. right now rhode island, i have my blackberry here, reporting about 12,000 people without power. another update. these are live pictures, in fact, from rhode island. long island power just another example. 45,000 customers affected in long island, and the list goes on and on. we're at tens of thousands of people, and the storm has not yet hit as you pointed out the historic level for new jersey, the jersey shore area along. this means you could have people without power, and we've seen this before, for weeks and days upon days without power if this number continues to easily there? that's the next step of problems

here. >> reporter: tamron, we haven't even seen the hurricane-force winds onshore yet. the power outages will juch into the millions starting about 5 p.m. this afternoon. >> all right. 5 p.m. eastern time this afternoon. i know you'll update us all day today. we'll watch for updates. thank you, bill. in all the campaigns have scrubbed 19 separate events between the two of them, limiting campaigning is going on today. in fact, here's some live pictures from jacksonville, florida where congressman paul ryan is expected to kick off an event any minute from now. joining me now is keith boykin, dominico montenaro. you have the campaign goes on sort of, but at this point what does "sort of" apply to? you have big events canceled at in the point, 19 in all as i mentioned so far. >> i think this morning a lot of

events were still on, and then they decided to halt a lot of that. the only person you saw on tv today was president obama putting his president hat on. man, we have eight days to go, and those are precious days for both campaigns to get out there and be able to win over some of these undecided voters or get their voters out, especially with early voting going on. we see right now a big pause on the campaign and president obama more in the spotlight with mitt romney taking a back seat because president obama is in charge of the government. that's just the way it is. >> that is the way it is, but that did not stop at least some campaigning going on for the governor. as i mentioned, you have this eef event with paul ryan and bill clinton in florida. he was supposed to be in florida with the president. let me play what former president clinton had to say. >> i was supposed to be the warm-up man for president obama today, but that storm on the east coast had other ideas.

>> but obviously the show does go on in some capacity, but talk me quickly about the perils for both of them. obviously, the president is the president. this is his responsibility, to have the concern of the american people on the forefront. what does governor romney do or say, other than this point that he's trying to be sense and pull off the campaign trail tomorrow and not today? >> it's no accident that bill clinton was in orlando. that's a key swing area right in the heart of that i-4 corridor. there was a cnn poll out today showing a 50/49 race between the two sides. pretty much a dead-even race. missing out on a day or two to get people out to the polls can really hurt both campaigns. mitt romney has to walk this fine line and so does the president not wanting to look too political in a situation like this when you could, as bill karins mentioned, see people out of power in the millions potentially for the next few days. >> let's bring chip in on this. you don't want to look too

political, but one thing some have noted is governor romney made a couple of phone calms to virginia governor bob mcdonald and chris christie, two republican governors negating to call governors who are democrats overseeing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people who could be impacted. was that a bad quote-unquote call no pun intended to make, chip? >> no, i don't think so. everybody is on the same page here. this storm is historic, and we don't know exactly. there's no precedent to this. the president set the right tone in his conference. i think governor romney called the two republican governors that he knew and he's friends with. he's been through it before but on a smaller level in massachusetts when he was governor. it's important for them to get out. i don't think it's a bad political call. the only thing you can do bad over the next seven days is be too political on this. that's the real question. >> let me quickly say because i know keith wants to get in on this. you call your friends.

your friends are the american people, not just those with republican governors with all due respect? >> i don't think anybody was questioning this was a partisan phone call. >> that's what i was asking you. you said it was a good call originally. keith, let me get you in on this. these are people right now. this storm has been deadly. it took many lives in the caribbe caribbean. we know the potential here, and if it does not cause loss of life, we know damage of property and the lingering impact. with that said, what does the president need to do to show people, listen, that i'm not caught up too much in the campaign and have my eye on this ball and that ball is the american people right now. >> i think he did exactly that today in his press conference where he said the election will take care of himself. he canceled his campaign events. the problem, though, tamron, is i think governor romney has politicized this event. he continued to campaign today. paul ryan continues to campaign today. >> clinton and biden were out today. >> president obama is the president of the united states.

by the way, we only have one president. i don't like the idea of mitt romney frying to go around and pretend he's the president of the united states when he's not. president obama canceled campaign events, and then governor romney -- this is a statement about what you do as president. that's why this storm is an important issue. you have to be president of all the american people and not president of new jersey and virginia because they have republican governors. why didn't mitt romney bother to call the other three? maybe because he has a record where he said back in the defwat last year when he was running trying to be severely conservatively that he would cut fema funding and send it back to the states and privatize it. this is why it's so important, because it illustrates the importance of government and illustrates the two fundamentally two different choices of the two candidates running for the highest office in land. >> chip, i think we have that sound from the debate. at the time governor romney was

asked whether or not with fema and its financial problems if he would cut fema or eliminate fema, and he said it would be up to the states. chuck todd pointed out in a state like florida, fema is very pob lar as is the former governor of that state, jeb bush, because of the help and aid given to people as a result of fema. we know fema has been criticized the in the past, but in large part people need fema in these kinds of crises. when governor romney said at the time he would scrap fema, he mentioned privatizing the aid that would be given in a situation like that, is it fair that this comes up at this point? when would he do in a situation like this when he stated he would not support fema? >> i think if mitt romney was president of the united states he'd do anything and everything he could to protect the american people. after a natural disaster like this, he would be on the ground to make sure that fema was there to support the states, to support the local enforcement and support the first responders to make sure they had everything they need, to protect people to

make sure they get people's power back on and back to normal. this is a historic storm. everybody is pulling together and it's not the time to politicize the issues. >> is it a fair question to ask in a situation like this, a lot of folks need the help and assistance of fema. in that debate the governor said he would eliminate fema and discussed the fact of private companies coming in for aid at this time. is it a fair question without looking through a partisan prism? when you bring it up the dap before the storm hit the country. >> it already hit the country. >> the high tide is tonight, but this is what's going to happen. you politicize it by bringing it up. mitt romney, if he was president of the united states, he would be doing a lot of the same things barack obama has done. i think barack obama has set the same tone. i think mitt romney has said i'll support the president. this is one country. we'll support all americans on this. this is not the time to politicize fema or something like that. >> that's exactly the reason why

this conversation is so important. if you think that obama and rom my would do exactly the same thing, it's not a question about their behavior but their policies. the policy of one guy is saying we would cut the funding for the programs that actually providing emergency management assistance to people in need. the policy of another guy is saying we will actually help people in need throughout country. it's a funt mental question about the role of government. >> there's no question it is about the role of government, and i think this is a thing that government can do that the private sector can't do. when governor romney was talking about fema, he wasn't talking about getting rid of foiirst responders and fema. he wanted to operate it working better. >> he discussed privatizing as well. let me give the audience an important update on the numbers right now. 20,000 people in sux ses county, delaware are affected by the hurricane. we're talking about lives. 25,000 people in sussex county,

delaware under a mandatory evacuation order for that county and the southernmost counties in delaware. these are live pictures right now out of delaware as well. chip, i greatly appreciate your time. dominico, what should we look for tomorrow, since these campaign trail events have been nixed at least for now? >> with the storm's impact likely to hit tomorrow the hardest, i think both campaigns will watch the weather reports as closely as we're watching the news and just seeing just how widespread this does become and just how devastating it could be. whether or not the two campaigns decide to go nid to help or hang back and just see, watch and wait and see what happens. >> thank you very much. i greatly appreciate it. chip, thank you. dominico, thank you. keith, i appreciate your time as well. the romney campaign does issue a statement saying that the governor believes the state

should be in charge of emergency management. he says the help should include the federal government and fema. so we want to bring that to you as well. we're just getting in this video from the coast guard of a rescue that took place about 90 miles off cape hatteras, north carolina. the coast guard rescued 14 crew members of the h.m.s. bounty. that's a sailing ship that actually sank in the storm. we want to get the latest now from cape may on the southern tip of new jersey. that's near where hurricane sandy is expected to make landfall. you heard bill karins at the top of the hour refer to this area. it's already getting pounded. danielle joins us now. the rain is coming down behind you. what are you hearing and seeing from people there? >> reporter: hi, tamron. we are getting hit with rain right now. the wind is also picking up. look at the beaches behind me. the tides are rising. the waves are getting more violent. we hear from the mayor that parts of cape may that do not normally flood are now flooding. there are streets underwater and

some roads in and out of cape may are closed. look where i'm standing, an area that isn't prone to flooding and all is puddling. the ground is so saturated there's no way where for the water to go. they wished they left and we heard about power outages and those get worse when the real winds hit from sandy later today and those power outages could last up to two weeks depending on how many people are without power. this is a situation now where people are told to get inside, stay there and be ready to ride this thing out for the long hall. reporting live, i'm danielle lee, back to you. up next, a live shot from one of the areas in new york lrp underwater, and they're expects even more flooding tonight. and in west virginia it is not the rain but snow. look at this video. this brought in as a result of sandy. a blizzard warning is in effect for at least 14 counties.

first, another image for you to say. this is a picture of the empty floor of the new york stock exchange. an eerie picture. within the last hour we learned the stock exchange will remain closed tomorrow for a second day due to hurricane sandy. it's the first time in 27 years the stock exchange closed because of weather. join the conversation with us on our twitter page. you can reach me at @tamronhall and my team at @newsnation. [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop? campbell's has 24 new soups that will make it drop over, and over again. ♪ from jammin' jerk chicken, to creamy gouda bisque. see what's new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

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the dramatic scene this morning in freeport on new york's long island where firefighters battled a house fire as floodwaters from hurricane sandy started to pour

into the town. those firefighters were knee-deep in water as you see from the pibts. thankfully no injuries reported there. more than 45,000 without power in that area of new york. mara skav camp powe joins. are most heeding that evacuation order snoo the reason officials address the message so strongly is bau of the storm surge. look if you can at these waves here. we've been out here since 6:00 this morning and these waves are consistently bigger and stronger and keep coming in further. that's what officials are worried about. major flooding, what the national hurricane center is calling a life-threatening surge from waves here. the surge here in this part of

long island could reach 11 feet. that's why the monday tear vac wags were put in place. to complicate things further is we have a full moon. the big concern is when it's high tide later this evening, this storm will still be in full effect and will lead to a lot of flooding. already without it being high tide during this middle part of the day, there are parts of the long island seeing 2 to 3 feet of flooding. once that high tide hits how baddbad will things get? some 35,000 people here are without power. the power authority says they can expect to wait 7 to 10 days to get their power restored here. so those are really the two big issues. i can tell you that this storm has intensified a lot just within the last hour that we've been out here. the winds have picked up, the rain has picked up. as a matter of fact, i have to shield my face from the sand coming in. that's the first time i've had to do that. we have seen shrines blow down

completely. this definitely is ramping up. officials say the peak is still many, many hours away. this is a serious storm, and officials want people to take it seriously. a short time ago a surfer was pulled out of the water here. that man was arrested and charged because officials want to make it clear to people that this is not a game. this is not a time to be seeking a thrill in the ocean. this is very dangerous, and people are putting first responders' lives at risk to rescue them. tamron. >> thank you very much. more information we're getting in. the major road closures. for example, new jersey turnpike authorities say they'll close the garden state parkway in both directions. i believe that's around 66 miles, so this is impacting what you see there. obviously, this is live video comes into us. major roadways, tunnels, people have been told to evacuate. some mandatory evacuations at this point even in rhode island, for example, where the governor is saying if you're not out, you may have to as they say hunker

down in your home. this is point pleasant beach, new jersey. another vantage point in our effort to help capture this storm so you can see what is exactly happening on the ground right now. still ahead, with just eight days left before the election, has hurricane sandy and the images you've been watching for the last 24 minutes of this show effectively ended the race? that's a question out there. we're going to check in with our first read team. rhode island's governor is urging people to make a decision now about evacuating from coastal and low-lying areas. live pictures from rhode island there for you. as we go to break, a look at live images coming in. you see people hanging around wanting to see this natural disaster and historic natural disaster even after being told it is time to evacuate. [ male announcer ] what can you experience in a seat? inspiration. great power.

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welcome back. you're looking live at flights currently in the air over the northeast and midwest courtesy of flightradar24.com. you can see the swarm of planes on the left, which includes chicago, but hartley any planes in the northeast where the skies would normal be jam-packed. airline travel into and out of the northeast has all but stopped before tomorrow. hundreds of flights have been canceled at o'hare and several at midway in chicago as well. travelers across the country and world have been impacted by them. they've canceled more than 10,000 flights as a result of sandy. governor romney is out with a new campaign ad in ohio that some call inaccurate and misleading. >> obama took gm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> what the romney campaign is saying about the ad today.

we're going to be joined by former ohio governor ted strickland. we'll get a response to the polls that show the race in ohio is neck and neck. nasa released a remarkable image of hurricane sandy from space. home ominous is that i can imagine? you can monitor the latest on sandy and watch live streaming coverage of the weather channel. go to weather.com. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here

to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief. welcome back to our continuing coverage of hurricane sandy. i got breaking details from bryan norcross. he indicates sandy is approaching the coast faster than forecasters predicted. for remote aalong the immediate coast, especially along the

jersey shore there could be sudden water rises that happen surprisingly fast. also, this could happen anytime during the next three hours, and it's exacerbated by high tide. so at this point bryan norcross is reporting that sandy is approaching the coast faster than forecasts originally predicted. let me bring in the weather channel hurricane expert as well, dr. greg pistole. thank you for time. obviously, we're talking about what's up happening immediately. we're keeping an eye on new jersey as bill karins says that's where we expect the major impact. people want to know why this storm is so tremendous and why we see in west virginia the blizzard-like conditions and what we're watching right now amazing.

some of these gusts here. montauk point had a wind gust of 71 miles per hour. hurricane-force wind gusts will be spread out over a very, very large area with this particular system. look at the current water rises that we have associated with the storm surge.

battery park, new york, 4.8 feet. that's about a half of a foot higher than what we saw with irene, and it will go only higher, probably a couple more feet before all is said and done. we have a lot of concerns to deal with. there are power outages that may last for weeks, millions without power very likely. back to you. >> thank you for the update now. let's go to point pleasant in new jersey along the jersey shore. ron, we have information that the strong possibility of rapid water rising in the area where you are right now. we see the angry sea behind you. >> reporter: yes, tamron, we've been watching out for rouge waves splashing up here. some have come up along this dune here. right now the wind is really, really ripping. it's been getting stronger and stronger. the rain is coming sideways, and i can feel all this sand hitting my back as it's coming up and flying in this direction as

well. back here you can see these waves. they're about 8 to 10 feet tall. all day they're getting closer and closer. under normal conditions the beach actually extends about 100 yards back in that direction all along this shore. this dune i'm standing on is about 12 feet tall and 30 yards wide or so, it's the last line of protection between that, the ocean, and the towns in front of me here that have been evacuated. also in the towns there are lakes and rivers and a bay along the coast, and those waters are rising. so right now you go about four or five blocks in that direction. there's very serious flooding. the police go around the town to make sure everybody is out. we've heard reports at least two situations where they helped people out of homes and took them to safety. most heed the warning to

evacuate, but apparently everybody isn't. the conditions here are deteriorating. tamron. >> again, it's worth noting that this storm, sandy, is a deadly storm. several dozen people killed in the caribbean at the beginning of the storm. we cannot stress that enough as bryan norcross has said it's moving faster than forecasters originally predicted and he issued a warning water could suddenly rise surprisingly fast is the language that he used. before the storm delivered both campaigns this curveball, if you will, mitt romney picked up up a key endorsement from t"the des moines register" that says romney offers a fresh economic position. it's the first support of a republican candidate since nixon. joining me from washington is dominico. normally we would say a hard turn from weather to politics, but i said earlier sandy is the third-party candidate a lot of people have been looking for in

that this storm has greatly impacted the travel schedules and what we're seeing including the news coverage of this "des moines register" endorsement which would be a headline today aathp point. how impactful is it when you combine the storm coverage and does it matter what the newspaper editorial board said. >> it won't get the national coverage it would have gotten the day after the weekend, but it is still going to be a big issue in iowa. it's the largest paper in iowa. now all four of the major papers in iowa have all endorsed mitt romney. so i do think that as the president's been looking for -- to stop some of the mitt romney's momentum in some places, that he would have liked that little bit of a boost from "the des moines register." he still probably has a narrow edge in iowa, but he has to do it without their support. >> the paper says that mitt romney offers a fresh economic visi vision. what do they point as a specific

of the vision that apparently impressed them? >> that's one of the things that i think a lot of us read the editorial, from both sides there's a lot of talking points in here. there wasn't a lot of new information as to why they made the decision. it sounded like they had a heated internal discussion and debate about it. it was almost, we need a change. mitt romney worked with democrats in massachusetts, but that was because of necessity, 87% democratic majority there. it's not at all clear how mitt romney would reach out to democrats, if you were to become president, in the next eight days. >> all right, a lot going on. we appreciate you joining us two times today with all this breaking news and details coming in. thanks. >> thank you. >> up next ted strickland will join us live to talk about governor romney's controversial new ad about the auto industry. chrysler is even opposed now to

this ad. it's being called misleading. we'll look into this. first, today, nate silver of the "new york times" forecast that on november 6th, president obama has a 75% chance of winning re-election. president obama would win 297 electoral votes and mitt romney at 241. that was me still taking insulin with a vial and syringe. me, explaining what i was doing at breakfast. and me discovering novolog mix 70/30 flexpen. flexpen is pre-filled with your pre-mix insulin. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. no vials, syringes or coolers to carry.

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welcome back. new details on the storm and the impact. these are live images from new york city. the middle of manhattan, if you will, on one side of your screen is times square. would normally be packed with people as you've seen many times in the past. very little traffic and very few tourists, and that is, of course, the famed rockefeller ice rink there. no one in the area. here's some new numbers i'm getting in from con ed.

that is the energy company here in manhattan. they say residents in manhattan are getting recorded messages regarding preemptive power outages that could happen at any time. tom yamos, our colleague at wnbc is reporting that due to flooding that con edison may need to turn off electricity in parts of manhattan by shutting service down to prevent severe damage to the electric system and get service restored sooner. so there could be, you know, deliberately power turned off by the energy company in an attempt to prevent severe damage to the electric system and get service restored sooner if there are power outages as a result of downed trees. we keep you up to date on what's going on there. that's new information on that. we mentioned earlier a lot of people of tweeted about this coast guard rescue. 14 members of a crew were forced to abandon a tall ship. that's one of the rescues taking

place. in the meantime, we have a real clear politics average of national polls transitioning back to where we stand with this election in the last full week of campaigning, eight days specifically to go. the race for president very close with governor romney now with a just under a one--point advantage nationally at this time in 2008 the president was ahead by more than 7 points. even with the president off the campaign trail, a big focus this re-election is still ohio for both men in fact. biden and clinton will campaign together in youngstown in the next hour. former governor ted strickland is on the program now. >> good to be with you, thank you. >> your concern is with those people -- hundreds of thousands of impacted by the storm, actually 50 million people in the end could be affected by this. the campaigning still goes on,

at least a little bit of it. tomorrow it's suspended with with both sides. there's an ad up in your home state. i want to play it. it's a new ad from the romney campaign. our first read team says, how concerned is the romney campaign about ohio? they point to this new ad as the answer. let me play it. >> obama tookm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> that's a portion of the ad. our first read team and others have noted the ad is misleading because chrysler is simply building jeeps in china the same way china builds cars in the united states. chrysler previously built jeeps in china and the move is nothing unusual. what do you make of this ad being played in your home state, and would it be effective? >> i think it's aa sign of desperation on the part of the romney campaign. i don't think it will be effective. in fact, i think it will have

unintended consequences. as ohioans have come to understand that mitt romney knows better. this is a purposefully misleading ad. i think it shows that ohioans cannot trust this man. when chrysler put out such a strong response, i thought romney would back off, but he has refused to do so because he knows, ohioans know it was president obama that saved our industry. that's so important to ohio, and that's why the romney campaign is running this misleading and unfortunate ad. it says something about his campaign. if he doesn't take this ad down, i think it will say something about his character and his honesty. >> it's interesting you point out that on the campaign trail thursday night in ohio in auburn hills, mitt romney said that jeep planned to shift all of its output from the united states to china including vehicles built

for u.s. consumers. chrysler to your point released a statement, quote, flatly denying it has any plans to move jeep output to china from the united states. that portion of his comments not in the new ad, but nevertheless the new ad still misleading there. but the polls have tightened at least according to one from the state. it shows the race -- i think we have those numbers neck in neck at this point. why is it still so close at this point in your state? >> well, i think you're referring to the ohio poll. >> absolutely. we have it up. it's 49/49 there. >> yes. the ohio poll has always has a conservative tent, but the fact is the most recent poll, the ppp poll has it i believe at 50/46. that's consistent with most other more recent polling. so i think it's very close. the president won four years ago i think 51/47.

i think we can end up with those numbers in this race. i think ohio is going to hang in there with the president, because the president has hung in there with ohio. our economy is coming back. our unemployment has gone down. optimism is up, and the auto industry is thriving. i don't think ohioans want to turn back the clock and go back to the same policies that mitt romney is proposing that are very similar, if not exact, to the policies pursued by the bush administration. >> governor strickland, thank you so much for your time. i really preach you coming on. we will talk with you very soon. again as you see on the side of the screen, these are images are point pleasant, new jersey. we keep our eye on the storm as it collides directly with, of course, the presidential race and the lives of so many people, 50 million specifically who can be impacted by the storm. up next, here's a look at new video coming in from west virginia. you've seen so much rain and

flooding, and the high tides. now it's snow as a result of sandy. this is what's happening. we'll have a live update for you next, and you can join the "news nation" on facebook. we're on facebook.com/newsnation. i just want to give her everything. [ whistles ] three words dad, e-trade financial consultants. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. wa-- wa-- wait a minute; bobby? bobby! what are you doing man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade.

welcome back. breaking news out of midtown manhattan. we're looking at a crane that is partially collapsed at 57th street and sixth avenue. again, if you've not been to new york or familiar, this is basically the middle of manhattan. what you see here is this crane that is partially collapsed. officers have shut down traffic. they've evacuated buildings. interestingly enough, in his briefing update, mayor michael blookberg indicated that the cranes and structures on these tall buildings have been inspected and they felt that they were up to snuff, up to

par, if you will, to sustain the winds you were suspecting. we don't know what caused this. again, with the wind gusts in manhattan and throughout the area and to see this image of this crane on this very tall building, i'm not sure who owns this building or what the building is itself. we know it's located at 57th and sixth avenue. the officers shut down traffic, evacuating buildings as well. that is another image to one wants to see as we deal with the impact of hurricane sandy. there's a concern with these high winds of debris and other things coming down. now we're watching a partial collapse, if we can categorize it as such, of this crane in the heart of manhattan. let me take your attention to another part of sandy, and this is the snow portion of this. in fact, in west virginia the governor has declared a state of emergency ahead of the full

brunt of storm. the mayor says officials are looking at a three-punch storm with rain and snow already falling and the threat of flooding is expected to increase in both panhandles. that's a part of west virginia, so we wanted to bring you this image. after seeing so much water and the threat of flooding, this is another part of the storm, the snow that it has brought to west virginia. that does it for edition of "news nation." a i'm tamron hall. in the meantime we'll have continuing coverage of sandy on msnbc throughout the night. my friends at "the cycle" will pick up our coverage right after a quick break. years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents!

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